Razon-led Prime Energy has indicated that it is willing to collaborate on the government-brokered "fuel swapping" arrangement to enable Ilijan gas plant’s return to electricity generation, as long as it is within the bounds of its contractual obligations with its bonafide gas buyers. “Prime Energy, as operator of the Malampaya gas project, has expressed its support to the Department of Energy (DOE) to collaborate on the matter, guided by our contractual duties and obligations,” the company has emphasized in its statement to the media. It qualified though that its gas volumes had already been committed contractually to a major buyer with several gas fleets, and Ilijan is currently not one of these electric generating assets. “We operate through contracts, which allow us to supply natural gas to our customers. Currently, all Malampaya natural gas volumes are fully contracted to fuel approximately 2,011MW (megawatts) of power for Luzon,” Prime Energy stressed. Currently, all outputs of Malampaya, including the banked gas, are being sold – through gas sale and purchase agreements (GSPAs) – to the plants of First Gen Corporation of the Lopez group, primarily its Santa Rita, San Lorenzo, San Gabriel and Avion gas-fed power facilities. For the contracted gas from the field, the Razon firm stated that “Malampaya natural gas delivery continues through the summer months of 2023 and afterwards.” It reiterated “there is no contract for the Malampaya natural gas to supply to the Ilijan power plant, which we understand can run on fuel other than Malampaya natural gas.” Prime Energy highlighted that “any diversion of the Malampaya gas will be upon the discretion of our customers (which in this case is First Gen and its subsidiary-firms),” emphasizing that these matters, if executed, will require advance planning. Around December last year, the DOE put all relevant stakeholders on the table to discuss possible re-channeling or swapping of the Malampaya banked gas purchased by First Gen to the Ilijan plant of South Premiere Power Corporation of the San Miguel group. While there were already exploratory talks, there had been tricky concerns that various parties have raised: including the procurement of possibly higher-priced liquid fuel that First Gen might resort to if it will share its banked gas to the Ilijan plant; the actual volume that Prime Energy would be able to deliver, especially during the critical months of summer; and the final cost impact on consumers. Bringing the Ilijan plant back to operation has been one of the remedial measures being pushed by the DOE, so the projected tight supply within the stretch of summer months could be eased. Until now, however, the nitty gritty of the targeted deal on fuel swapping has not been firmed up. At this stage, Prime Energy conveyed that it “continues to collaborate and remains true to our obligation to our stakeholders and the DOE,” adding that the company “anticipates the success of the industry to address the insufficiency of power reserves to the benefit of the general public.”